Chadwick Boseman says he didn’t always want to be an actor

Chadwick Boseman revealed he didn’t always want to be an actor; he envisioned himself as a director and writer. We say, why not all three?

In a span of a few short years, it seems like Chadwick Boseman has played them all: Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, James Brown and T’Challa, king of Wakanda. We’re lucky to have the exuberant Boseman take on these roles, but if he stuck to his early life calling, it might not have been that way.

Chatting with Esquire magazine, Boseman revealed that acting wasn’t always in the plan for him. Yes, get those gasps out now, and be happy that things turned out so differently for him.

Boseman explained in the interview: “I was more so of the mind of the director and the writer. I didn’t want to be onstage and I didn’t want to be on camera. Not at all.”

If the Black Panther actor didn’t want to be on screen, at least we would have been lucky enough to get him as the creative mind behind some projects. He cited that original career aspiration to seeing his old brother perform at his dance routines and plays:

"We got [to the performances] early. I was sitting, watching the director, and I was more interested in what he was doing than the performance onstage. How he was talking to the performers. And how he would change certain things or why he would change certain things. I didn’t know that was an interest of mine; it didn’t register that it was something I wanted to do. I just enjoyed the process.”"

When he was in high school, Boseman said he got to direct a play, and it really clicked with him that he could make a career out of it. For him, it was the creative process that really appealed to him.

Things didn’t really change for the aspiring director until he attended college at Howard University in Washington, D.C. While studying there, he explained that one of his advisers said the best way to be a director was to get into the mind of an actor. And so perhaps Boseman spent too much time in the minds of actors, because the acting bug certainly bit him.

Now, that brings us to today, where he’s become the star of one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. Not only is he a star, but he’s become a role model for many others out there. Everyone took a risk in creating the Black Panther movie, but it certainly paid off, knowing how much the representation in the film means to people around the world.

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If Boseman ever needs a break from acting, we’d gladly support him if and when he decides to tackle another writing or directing project. With his name behind anything now, it’ll likely be a big success.

But until then, we’ll just keep watching re-watching Black Panther, thankful that the acting bug found its way to him.